JoAnn

I am a homeschooling mom of four wonderful blessings and Master Playologist with SimplyFun. I'm known for my distractedness, thus the title of my blog. It's about all of the distractions in life: those that are part of homeschooling, those that distract from our homeschooling day, and everything in between. I love everything that comes with staying at home and homeschooling the kids and wouldn't trade it for anything. I love helping others and hope to encourage parents to spend time connecting with and getting to know their kids better. You can find me on Facebook (HomeschoolDistractions or JoAnnsGames), Twitter (JoAnnsGames), and Perioscope (JoAnnsGames). You can also email me at fortheloveofshiny at gmail dot com.

Scott

Scott is my husband of 16 years. He is a wonderful father and avid supporter of homeschooling. He is the sole proprietor of IT Service Works, which he established to serve the IT needs of small businesses in the Tacoma area and beyond. If you need excellent and reliable IT support, contact him.

Monday, January 11, 2010

I posted previously that I was participating in a challenge designed to get participants reading more and reading more deliberately. If You Really Loved Me by Ann Rule was my first book for the challenge. I chose to start with it because I've been wanting to read this book since I first heard of it a couple years ago...and the challenge gave me the motivation to hunt down a copy from the library and actually read it.If You Really Loved Me is a great true crime novel. The book is written in three parts: the crime, the investigation, and the trial. First, she tells the crime as it is happens. In this case, the crime is the murder of the young wife of computer business man, David Brown, and all of the initial evidence points to her 14 year old step-daughter, Cinnamon, as the murderer. The real investigation doesn't come until after Cinnamon is convicted and sentence to prison. In fact, it didn't really begin until years later, when one day, Cinnamon spoke up. And the story she told was shocking, though not as shocking as the whole story as discovered by the investigators. Finally, the book ends with another trial. Ann Rule does a great job of providing us with all of the pertinent information to the case, including giving us the background information to set the scene. Her writing style is straight-forward and interesting enough to keep you interested. It is a heft paperback at 599 pages, but well worth reading for those who enjoy true crime.

I had a special interest in this book because I grew up with Cinnamon. I was 11 when she was first taken into custody. I remember her mom walking down the street to give us updates on the evidence and case as it happened. I always wondered what the complete story was, and now I know.

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Comments:

I've heard that Ann Rule writes very "readable" books. Very spooky to have a personal connection with a prime player in the book. Do you feel like you opened up a can of worms or was it a good idea to learn more of the facts?

Hi Dear,I am a Christian homeschooling mom as well & have a 7 yo girl & 9 yo boy (has Aspergers). I am originally from Oregon & now live in Northern California. I started a homeschool curriculum & book buy & sell site on fb. I would like to know if it is ok for you to review our group & possibly post it into your blog? Thanks dear. Blessings, Heather Pike

Here is the link to the facebook group~https://www.facebook.com/groups/homeschoolcurriculumandbookswap/